


Wet mirrors

by 1anioh



Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: Bittersweet, F/M, Fae Magic, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Light-Hearted, Mostly light hearted, Sugar high goblins, also did you know you cant add more than 3 tags via phone?, title doesn't match because story was something else completely and than evolved into this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-06-23 18:12:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19706767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1anioh/pseuds/1anioh
Summary: Goblins are the worst, she decides.





	Wet mirrors

**Author's Note:**

> This started out as a light hearted romp and ended in traditional fairytale land. I'm sorry.

Goblins were the bane of Sarah's entire existence.

They followed her. Been following her since she was 15, having returned home from saving her sibling from a labyrinth of unimaginable magics. 

Apparently goblins took a mile if you gave them an inch. And an inch she had given. 

She had been desperate not to lose magic completely from her life, had said she needed them. Needed them all, goblins included. 

She had not been a clever child.

Oh sure Sarah had her friends and family amongst the goblin kingdom, all of whom she loved dearly and was grateful for, but she had learned rather quickly that alone time was now something of the past.

And that dumb Goblin king was the  _ worst. _ He hadn't been invited in to her home, or through the mirrors that others traveled through easily enough. 

Because as the victor of their game, something the underrealm took very seriously, Sarah was granted a boon. All she had wanted at the time was for the Goblin king to leave her alone and the labyrinth had enacted a barrier around her that did just that.

It kept him trapped in the labyrinth, on the other side, and prevented him from coming to her realm. Something that left her feeling smug, even as it left her slightly queasy.

It was not exactly what she had meant, but without the right words the labyrinth had done it's best. 

Sarah was always careful to never say his name though, not even to think it, because Hoggle had told her it would be enough to let him in, to crack the barrier.

But back to goblins being the worst. Rather than taking the hint that she  _ didn't want him around _ the Goblin king had started stalking her. 

It started with him showing up in the mirror in her room. He hadn't come through, just reclined lazily on his throne and watched her. He hadn't spoken, just smirked at her as she gasped incredulously. She'd been 15 and a half at the time, four months post trip, and no matter what she had shouted at him he refused to leave.

Sarah had tossed a blanket over the mirror and studiously ignored him. 

That was when the goblins came. 

They snuck into her room, pulling off the blanket and laughing gleefully before jumping through. Sarah would toss the blanket up and it be down the next time she entered the room. 

By the time Sarah was 16 the goblins weren't waiting for her to even leave before pulling it down. And despite her shouting at them, and chasing them around with a broom, and swearing extra violence when she caught them the creatures were never scared. 

Sarah might have wanted to set the Goblin king on fire but she never hurt the bratty little goblins. 

Sarah prepared for war.

_ He _ watched everything, always laughing, always waiting for her to slip up and let him in. 

Her first revenge, a simple bowl filled with 10lbs of Halloween candy that had been fed to the goblins before setting them loose on his throne room, had given her a vicious sense a glee, and the disgruntled Goblin king had left her alone for a whole week afterwards. 

The gifts of silly string and water balloons had followed next. 

The look of horror on his face when she presented a pile of fruit pies taller than herself had kept her laughing for days. 

When Sarah was 17 she'd been at the mall, frowning at the way a black slippery cocktail dress wasn't sitting right at the shoulders, the straps kept slipping down, which let the neckline droop and resulted in rather large amount of cleavage when  _ he _ showed up. It had been the first time he'd taken over a mirror outside of her bedroom and her startled shout had an employee politely asking if she was okay.

She really wasn't but said she was, just a spider that had startled her. Sarah had turned and stuck her tongue out at the mirror. 

The look of stunned surprise on his face had given her pause though. She tilted her head, scowling at his wide eyes and parted mouth. There was something bright, burning in their depths, but she couldn't translate it's meaning. Morsuik, a tiny goblin with a pot on his head and red mittens that he'd gotten from her at Christmas last year, waved enthusiastically, quickly joined by a dozen more goblins all crowding the mirrors face. 

Sarah sighed, offered a small smile and waved back. The Goblin king jerked at the motion and the mirror fogged over, replaced by her reflection once more. 

She stuck her tongue out again, just to be brat, and hoped  _ he _ fell face first in the bog of eternal stench. It was incredible how even though he hadn't said a single thing to her since she'd returned home how much he still managed to annoy her.

After that though he showed up everywhere. At school, at the mall, at home, even the library where she studied on the weekends. Any place there was a reflective surface and he'd pop up to watch. Always with that same burning look, always heavy lidded and smart smirk. 

She was grateful that at least in the public spaces he kept the mirrors muted. Sarah wasn't sure she could handle loud, drunken singing while studying for her finals. 

It did make her anxious that someone else might see them, and put the labyrinth in danger, but no one else ever seemed to notice that mirrors never reflected herself back properly. Or that strange laughter tended to always follow her around. And after a particularly stressful week, that ended with her crying hysterically and clutching Dot, a large goblin dressed like a snail to her chest, Hoggle had showed up. 

He was disgruntled and obviously didn't really understand why she was upset but had gruffly explained that normal people couldn't seem them. Or rather, only saw what they expected to see. So she didn't need to bother about caring over the rat or his dumb goblins getting caught. 

It had helped, to hear her friends reassurance that she wasn't putting them in danger. Not that she cared if the king was caught, not really, but the little goblins wouldn't stand a chance against a group of freaked out teenagers. 

On Sarah's 18th birthday she had a fight with her stepmother.

Sarah was a quiet, cautious girl after having learned her lessons in the labyrinth and combined with always having been a bit of a weird drama child she didn't have many human friends.

Or, well any human friends technically. 

She had Toby, her brother, that adored her and she had her goblins and labyrinth friends and that had always seemed enough. But it hadn't seemed the wisest to invite any of them over for a mixed party, so she had shrugged and said she didn't have anyone to invite when asked.

It wasn't enough for her stepmother.

Sarah had done her best not to fight these last few years because words had power but honestly she was a teenager, stressed over school and a sharp eyed Goblin king who was always watching, and someone informing her that she was a disappointment was enough to send her into battle. 

Her father had tried to mediate, defending both daughter (she has good grades!) and stepmother (just worried about you honey) but ultimately had failed to soothe either woman.

She held her own in the argument until the other suggested sending Sarah to a doctor, that maybe her daydreams needed professional help, because she clearly was not doing good enough on her own. It had stunned her into silence, and she was barely aware of the cracking pain in her chest as she stared at her stepmother. 

Sarah sucked in a painful breath and turned on her heel, slamming out the door barefoot and running away from the cruelty of those words. She didn't hear her father's sharp admonishment, or the guilty, regretful look on the woman's face. 

A surprise summer storm chased Sarah as she ran. By the time she stumbled across the forested park on the other side of town, she was breathing hard, crying harder and soaking wet. Her feet were bleeding from various cuts, but it wasn't until she stepped onto grass that she noticed.

Trees probably weren't the best protection from lightning but as she slipped in the slick mud towards the creek at the far back of the lot, the one the separated groomed park from state forest, she found she didn't really care. 

She was cold, shocky, and far too upset over the idea that her family, her  _ parents _ , thought she was crazy, to really focus on anything around her. Actually, she thought slightly hysterically, it's not even that I'm crazy, it's that she hates me enough to want to change me, despite me being the happiest I've been in years. 

A smashing sound vibrated around her, and she shuddered violently, the sense of magic suddenly heavy absolutely everywhere. Distracted she raced forward before tripping over a thick root; she gave a startled shout, sliding down an embankment and waist deep in a swollen and freezing creek. Sarah stumbled, splashing wildly, and crying out again when a particularly sharp rock sliced her left foot.

Sarah looked up miserably and met the eyes of dozens of goblins. They lined the banks of the creek, some crouched in the mud, watching her silently. Her teeth clanked together as she shook. She'd never heard them so quiet before, hadn't even realized that they knew how to be silent. She reached a hand out towards a goblin with a pair of large goat horns but froze when he shook his head. 

As one they all pointed at the water and Sarah looked down. 

The water's surface should have been impossible to have anything reflected in it, between the current and the rain, and her own shaking movements; but there stood the Goblin king. Eyes burning and focused directly onto hers. No throne room in the background this time, just dark swirling water. He stood pressed against the waters edge, face intense and body held stiffly.

Sarah shuddered, more than just the cold pushing down her spine. He offered her a small, dark smile and held out a hand, his fingers rippling the water. 

She glanced up at the goblins, dark against the sky, their eyes glowing, before flicking her gaze back down. Her feet throbbed, and her knee ached from hitting the creek side, and she really just wanted to go home. 

She reached out a hand and tentatively touched his fingers. She swayed tiredly as a warm, male hand tangled their fingers together.

"Goblin king, goblin king take this child far away from here." Quietly she sighed, and added in an even softer voice. "Please Jareth." 

With a smile that was all teeth, and through the roar of approval and glee of the goblins on the shore, Sarah was jerked downwards into the dark water. Arms, burning compared to cold waters, wrapped around her and tangled into her hair. She was pressed tight to a body, and could feel the rushing current as she fell down, down. 

Distantly the fear of not being able to breathe faded. 

And a warm, smug voice welcomed her back with a pleased purr.

-

Three days later the county coroner's office officially declared Sarah Williams death as an accidental drowning, her body having been finally retrieved from bottom of a local stream where a severe and sudden storm had swollen it nearly three times its normal size. 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
